Where should marketing focus in the digital age?

In modern marketing, the traditional tools of segmentation, positioning, product, price, communication and distribution remain necessary — but are no longer enough to guarantee success. 

According to Marc Cortés, Director of the Executive Master Digital Business, predicting potential problems and developing solutions before the user is even aware they exist should be the focus of the marketing remit. Writing in Harvard Deusto Business Review, the associate professor of marketing explains how organizations can future-proof campaigns. 

Maximize the user experience

In 2010, Indonesian politician, Harvard graduate and former McKinsey consultant Nadiem Makarim recognized that the country’s motorcycle taxis, known as Gojeks, were not operating efficiently. Drivers were spending a lot of time waiting for passengers, while passengers struggled to find drivers when they needed one. 

Problem-solving transcends sectors and one solution can meet multiple needs

To bridge this gap, Makarim developed the Gojek app. But rather than simply connecting drivers with passengers on an Uber-style platform, he wanted the service to meet much wider needs. The app was quickly expanded to offer Deliveroo-style deliveries from restaurants and supermarkets, followed by the fulfillment of prescriptions collected from pharmacies and the delivery of laundry.  

The app’s success saw it develop from a simple delivery service to include the option of ordering repairs and maintenance, requesting home visits for therapy and beauty services, and even buying cinema and theater tickets for same-day delivery. With such a wide range of services, the next logical step was to integrate an in-app payment system: Go-Pay now accounts for 30 percent of online transactions in Indonesia.  

With Gojek, Makarim understood that problem-solving transcends sectors and one solution can meet multiple needs. 

The Amazon ecosystem

Amazon’s business model is as varied as it is vast. The global giant’s Prime subscription model boasts over 200 million members and links the company’s marketplace of hundreds of thousands of global businesses with its video and audio streaming services Prime and Amazon Music. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) adds a further dimension, with cloud platforms and APIs providing on-demand solutions for individuals and organizations that grow with the needs of the customer. Every service in the Amazon ecosystem can be taken alone, but when combined offer a complete value proposition. Amazon Prime subscribers spend an average of $1,800 with the company, three times as much as non-Prime members.  

The four focus points

In each of these examples, the businesses created solutions with the customer at the center of the demand (marketing pull) and expanded the offering to exploit the possibilities of the available technology before the market realized it had a need for it (tech push). Understanding how to find and maintain this balance will enable the marketing function to prepare for future challenges. 

To aid this transition, Cortés outlines four key areas for marketing teams to focus on: 

1. Identify unfair advantages 

Established companies with specific assets, such as a large and loyal customer database (Nespresso) or a network of outlets in which to stock a new product (Walmart), are clearly in an advantageous position over those who are completely new to market. Rather than expending resources on attempting to break into new markets, businesses should examine their own vantage points and identify areas in which they can lead instead of follow. 

2. Prioritize data 

Netflix has around 15,000 titles available to view on demand, but its true value lies in its ability to offer viewers new and appealing choices the moment the app is opened. If users were repeatedly invited to view the same titles, or offered a selection of genres they had no interest in, the platform would be significantly less appealing. Netflix successfully markets its shows by analyzing data generated by viewing history, location, age and myriad other variables to predict viewing preferences and ensure the choices on offer are highly personalized. 

3. Understand growth phases and how to measure them 

In the digital age, marketing must go much further than simply attracting customers and following the expected lifecycle. Strategies should anticipate every phase of the business model and how it links to the growth plans of the whole organization. Marketing evolution should be carefully predicted, mapped, measured and adjusted. If Airbnb decided to expand into a country nobody wanted to visit, its tourism marketing model would be useless. The marketing function must be adjusted to follow the direction of growth, with barriers to access removed, functionality monitored, engagement measured, improvements made and constant upselling to avoid churn. 

4. Get on board with tech 

The sheer number and scale of new tech products launched to market make it almost impossible to predict which of them will be the next big thing. To help decide where to invest, American entrepreneur Peter Diamandis recommends following his ‘six Ds’ script: 

• Digitalization: If a service has the potential to become disruptive when it’s digitalized, such as the explosion in online executive training during the pandemic, success is almost sure to follow. 
• Disappointment. When a technology launched with much fanfare, such as the Metaverse, fails to have the expected impact, it’s unlikely to achieve long-term success. 
• Disruption. If technology triggers a change in the rules of pre-existing businesses, as seen in shared mobility platforms in the transport sector, it’s well on its way to becoming an established norm. 
• Dematerialization. When one piece of technology eclipses another established piece of equipment, such as the mobile phone replacing the camera, expect it to become a market leader. 
• Demonetization. If a user can get for free what they used to pay for, the old way of doing things will die out.  
• Democratization. When the evolution of technology becomes mainstream and available to more people, it’s likely to be here for the long haul. 

Marketing has never been an exact science and becomes increasingly less so as the world and ways of doing business evolve. Acknowledging the challenges and mastering the mindset will help practitioners to deliver successful campaigns, whatever the future has in store.